Specialty Programs

 

Every person is unique and distinct, so the outpatient therapy services we offer are, too. At your first appointment, our first step is to gain a thorough understanding of your needs, your medical history and your lifestyle.

Based on those specifics, the outpatient therapy team will put together an individualized care plan to help you achieve your goals. This care plan may include:

Orthopaedic/Musculoskeletal Rehabilitation

Therapists use a range of treatment approaches to help patients regain function.  Services include therapeutic exercise, manual therapy, and customized home programming instruction for patients recovering from any of the following conditions:

• Sprains and strains
• Tendonitis
• Bursitis
• Amputation
• Arthritis
• Temporo-mandibular joint (TMJ) dysfunction
• Headache

Back and Spine Care

Physical therapists with specialized training will guide the patient’s active recovery and help him/her acquire skills for self-management of their spinal conditions.  Therapy elements include:

• Manual skills for symptom relief
• Therapeutic exercise instruction addressing posture, range of motion, flexibility, strength and coordination issues contributing to the spine disorder
• Functional restoration and conditioning programming that assists patients in assuming activities of daily living, work activities or recreation
• Creating a plan for the patient’s life at home, to optimize recovery and prevent aggravation of the spine problem

Post Surgical Rehabilitation: Continuing Rehabilitation after Hospitalization

CMTS therapists work with the Orthopaedic Institute of Central Maine by providing outpatient rehabilitation services to patient after their hospital discharge. CMTS programming supports patients following:

• Total joint replacement
• Surgery for sports injuries
• Spine surgery
• Trauma rehabilitation
• Hand and upper extremity surgery
• Reconstructive surgery

CMTS therapists communicate closely with the patient’s surgeon, to support an optimal outcome for the patient.

Balance and Vestibular Program

This program seeks to decrease dizziness and improve balance for people who feel unsteady when walking or standing, or experience dizziness, positional vertigo, lightheadedness, or spinning, and may have experienced a fall or loss of balance.

Work Injuries

CMTS therapists offer services to support the injured worker, which include:

• Acute injury treatment focused on active, timely recovery
• Ergonomic review/work risk analysis
• Education and training to prevent re-injury
• Work conditioning – restoring abilities to perform work

Hand and Upper Extremity Therapy

CMTS therapists support a comprehensive range of hand and upper extremity conditions including:

• Repetitive motion disorders
• Post fracture of hand, wrist and upper extremity
• Burns
• Sports injuries of the hand, wrist and upper extremity
• Sprains and strains
• Tendon lacerations
• Arthritic conditions
• Work injuries
• Neuropathies

Treatment services include:

• Splinting
• Pain management
• Therapeutic exercise to regain range of motion and strength
• Joint protection
• Post surgical care
• Customized adaptive equipment to support activities of daily living
• Work simulation/job task analysis
• Scar management
• Desensitization

Lymphedema Management

Lymphedema is the abnormal accumulation of lymphatic fluid under the surface of the skin, causing swelling in the limbs. The Center’s lymphedema therapy focuses on:

• Controlling or reducing lymphedema symptoms
• Decreasing pain
• Increasing independence in self care
• Improving mobility
• Long-term self management

Treatment consists of:

• Lymphatic massage
• Compression bandaging
• Exercise
• Skin care training
• Compression garment fitting

Pelvic Floor Rehab – Bladder Control–Incontinence Management

Physical therapists with specialized training provide treatment and training support to women, men and children of all ages that may have any of the following conditions:

• Urinary and fecal incontinence
• Urinary urgency
• Urinary frequency
• Constipation
• Overactive bladder
• Pelvic pain, including difficulty with sitting, pain with intercourse, and pain of the hip, lower back and lower abdomen
• Pregnancy/post partum incontinence/pain
• Pelvic organ prolapse

Specific treatment and training is identified for the individual patient and may include some of the following components:

• Bowel and bladder training
• Biofeedback
• Soft tissue mobilization
• Pelvic floor muscle training
• Establishing a home program that the patient uses for supporting self-management of his/her condition

Swallowing Therapy

Speech pathologists partner with physicians to provide comprehensive assessment of swallowing functioning and to develop a treatment plan. Therapy may include:

• Exercises to improve muscle control and strength
• Compensatory strategy training to compensate for deficits
• Facial, oral and pharyngeal exercise in conjunction with electrical stimulation
• Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (VitalStim) to retrain swallow
• Patient training regarding diet consistency strategies to reduce health risks
• Food preparation instruction

The goal of swallow/dysphagia therapy is to reduce the risk of aspiration and improve swallowing function, to allow the patient to consume food and liquid with a wider variety of consistencies. Patients that have experienced the following may benefit:

• Stroke
• Traumatic brain injury
• Head and neck cancer
• Neurological diseases
• Respiratory diseases
• Facial paralysis
• Post polio syndrome

Adult Speech/Language Therapy

Speech language pathologists evaluate and treat adult speech and language disorders, including patients with issues relating to:
Voice: Vocal changes, vocal cord dysfunction, and difficulty with vocal quality and loudness. Goal of therapy is to increase optimal vocal pitch, appropriate loudness, resonance, optimizing breathing style, and pacing for speech production and vocal hygiene programming.

Fluency: Mild to moderate fluency difficulties and excessive upper body and laryngeal tension. Goal of therapy is to decrease or eliminate difficulties and provide fluency enhancing strategies.

Dysarthria and Apraxia: Motor speech disorders where the goal of therapy is to develop functional speech strategies and/or to determine if speech-based therapy tools would improve communication. May include technical augmentative communication devices or speech generating devices. Therapy supports communication skills for the home, work and community environments.

Pediatric Speech/Language Therapy

Speech therapists work closely with parents and family physicians and Child Development Services (CDS) to evaluate and treat all aspects of early communication skills, including comprehension of spoken language, verbal expression, pragmatics/social language skills, articulation/sound production skills, fluency and voice. The goal is to help children attain the communication skills required in education and social settings.

Osteoporosis Program

Therapists design safe exercise and activity programs to improve an individual’s strength, balance and overall function. A customized home program is designed to help decrease bone loss and lower the risk of falls or fracture.

Neurological Rehabilitation

The CMTS skilled team of physical therapists, occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists work closely with inpatient rehabilitation facilities to support a smooth transition to the outpatient phase of care. Therapy is focused on supporting the patient’s continued effort to regain function during his/her recovery from:

• Brain injury
• Post-concussive syndrome
• Stroke
• Parkinson’s disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Spinal cord injury
• Other neurological conditions

Rehabilitation programming focuses on enhancing areas of function that the patient finds most challenging, such as:

• Difficulties with self-care and mobility
• Cognition
• Balance loss
• Difficulty communicating
• Swallowing problems

Recovery from an illness or injury is often complex, so you may require a combination of multiple therapies to find relief and restore abilities. Your therapeutic care plan will outline what’s needed to help you recover — or preserve mobility and activities of daily living — and the plan can evolve to meet your changing needs.